How much financial assistance is available per month to low-income families with one severely disabled teenage child?

This map tells us how much direct financial assistance countries provide per month to low-income families with one teenage child with severe disabilities.

Map reflects laws and policies in place as of March 2012.

Some countries adjust the amount of these benefits based on the age of the child, the family’s income, the amount of benefits received through other schemes, and/or the nature of the child’s disability. For the purposes of comparability, we examine the benefits provided to families in the lowest income bracket with one child with the most severe level of disability at a given age.

In order to provide a concrete and comparable image of the financial support offered to families across countries, we calculated benefit levels for sample families with a specified number of children of a specified age. For families with a teenage child, the calculation was made based on a family with one 15-year-old child.

No specific family benefits includes countries with no family benefit scheme as well as countries with general cash family benefits, but no benefits specifically for children with disabilities.

Benefits are only the amount of money targeted toward children with disabilities. If a country has a general cash family benefit and an additional supplement for children with disabilities, we only consider the amount of the supplement.

Benefits are adjusted for differences in buying power across countries. To determine purchasing power parity (PPP), economists estimate the amount of money required to purchase the same bundle of goods and services across countries rather than using a simple exchange rate to compare currencies.